We’re still hanging out in Coconut Grove. The weather has been fabulous and the town is great. Some friends of ours went to the Bahamas with the recent weather window. We’re going to stick around here for a bit, another adventure looms. Meanwhile, we’ll enjoy the weather and the town. We had a terrific meal at a local restaurant, le Bouchon du Grove. Peter had Moules Marinières and Claudia a Tartare de Saumon. Moules is one of our favorite dishes (a tradition on Xmas Eve). The Bouchon did a great job, serving up a full kilo of delicious mussels steamed in a white wine broth. The Tartare of Salmon came swimming in a delicate cream seasoned with lime zest and basil oil.

Our walks around town have yielded yet more additions to Peter’s collection of doors and windows from around the world. (pictures, you understand, not the actual ‘things’ ;) One of them looked as if it could have been from Timbuktu. I don’t know what is so fascinating about doors and windows but Peter has pictures of them from all over. Maybe he’ll do a collage some day.

And then there is the varnishing. Peter spent a lot of time last winter sanding and varnishing the toe rail. The elements have begun to take their toll. The plans were to do something about it in some nice quiet, exotic cove. Well, Coconut Grove is not quiet, some may consider it exotic, but it is nice. So, progress has been made to rescue the teak from the ravages of weather. Claudia, the slug, has tried to clean the starboard scoop with the magical “Mr Clean” sponges and after working quite a while, decided that this one would not come as clean as the port one. She is, however, keeping the saloon relatively tidy and the galley spotless!

Went out for lunch for Peter’s birthday. A really local place next to the exorbitantly priced “Chart House.” We had a great view of the water and the boats anchored there. We had a shrimp ceviche that was only so so . And a conch salad that could NOT compare to “Friendly Joe’s “ on Bimini –(or even Peter’s ceviche) then we shared a burger which was also so so. Oh, well we stopped at the “fresh market” and bought some salmon and smoked salmon to try to replicate my tartare, as well as two lovely lamb chops to go with the rest of the fresh spinach that we have. *sigh* LIFE IS GOOD. Even for old codgers!!!!!